The Pro-Putin GQP Prepared To Abandon Ukraine And To Appease Putin

After years of defending Putin’s puppet, Donald Trump, and dismissing Russia’s interference in American elections, Republicans have become “Putin’s Caucus” in Congress, spreading pro-Russian propaganda and voting against military assistance to Ukraine, or even holding Russia accountable for its state acts of terrorism and war crimes. This is appeasement of evil. Meet the pro-Putin Republicans and conservatives.

Read this once, and then read it again. The GOP's Pro-Putin faction is anti-democratic. https://t.co/th8lpI5rE3

— DCCC (@dccc) April 7, 2022

Note: All of the above except Thomas Massie, surprisingly, also voted not to certify the 2020 election, giving aid and comfort to the violent MAGA/QAnon insurrectionists, in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 2383.

The Washington Post reports, McCarthy signals GOP-led House likely to oppose more aid to Ukraine:

House Minority Leader [“Traitor”] Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is signaling that if Republicans win the House majority in next month’s elections, the GOP is likely to oppose more aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Since the invasion in February the majority of congressional Republicans and Democrats have united in authorizing billions of dollars in U.S. military and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv as a geopolitical and moral stand against Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

McCarthy, who could be House speaker if Republicans triumph, indicated that that could end in a GOP-led House.

“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” he recently told Punchbowl News. “They just won’t do it.”

McCarthy suggested that Americans want Congress to focus on issues closer to home.

Today’s America First is the same as the 1930s America First of Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford, pro-fascism and American isolationism. How did that work out?

“There’s the things [the Biden administration] is not doing domestically,” he said. “Not doing the border [because of Republican obstructionism in Congress], and people begin to weigh that. Ukraine is important, but at the same time, it can’t be the only thing they do, and it can’t be a blank check.”

There’s the anti-immigrant, great replacement theory fixation of the White Christian Nationalists.

The United States has authorized upward of $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, with more than $18.2 billion in security assistance given since January 2021. The Senate voted to finalize more than $40 billion in new military and humanitarian assistance in May, with Republicans being the only lawmakers voting against that package — the largest investment in Ukraine thus far.

Eleven Republican senators and 57 House GOP members opposed the legislation, arguing that more needs to be done to account for how the money is spent and to trace weapons and equipment sent to the battlefield.

On Friday, the United States announced an additional $725 million in security assistance for Ukraine, including more ammunition for high mobility rocket systems, or HIMARS, as well as precision-guided artillery rounds, antitank weapons and Humvees, according to a Pentagon statement.

Although most of the congressional leadership, most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have been steadfast in support for Ukraine, voters in several states in January could send Republicans to Washington who are eager to oppose aid. The number of those wary of foreign aid and adherents of former president Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda are expected to grow in the next Congress. [You can prevent this.]

In September, J.D. Vance, the venture capitalist and author who is locked in a close race for a U.S. Senate seat representing Ohio, said he wants “the Ukrainians to be successful” but not because of continued U.S. funding.

“I do think that we have to get to a point, and this is where we do disagree, we’ve got to stop the money spigot to Ukraine eventually,” he told the ABC affiliate in Toledo. “We cannot fund a long-term military conflict that I think ultimately has diminishing returns for our own country.”

Vance added, “I think we’re at the point where we’ve given enough money in Ukraine, I really do. … The Europeans need to step up. And frankly, if the Ukrainians and the Europeans, more importantly, knew that America wasn’t going to foot the bill, they might actually step up.”

Europe has provided a significant amount of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

In Arizona, Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters criticized the additional funding for Ukraine in May, claiming that the money should be used instead to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Under Joe Biden, it’s always America last,” he said in a video he tweeted. “Let’s be clear about what this means. It means no cease-fire. It means another foreign war where we pay for everything. Many more thousands of people will die. There’s no resolution, no end in sight. The risk of course is that a proxy war can escalate into an all-out nuclear war between nuclear powers.”

In New Hampshire, Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc said last week that more spending is not the answer to improving conditions in Ukraine.

“We must hold the administration accountable,” he told New Hampshire’s ABC affiliate. “We just can’t print this money. It’s money we don’t have, and it’s equipment that’s being thrown at a problem without any strategy, without any policy, and it’s not going to get the job done.”

These Republicans could join Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who in May temporarily held up $40 billion of aid to Ukraine, saying, “you can’t save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy.”

Nevada Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt tweeted in May that the $40 billion U.S. aid to Ukraine was a “shockingly abhorrent proposal.”

The loudest voices on the right on the issue, such as Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, have been outspoken in questioning aid to Ukraine.

The Conservative Political Action Conference in September posted, then deleted, a tweet that echoed Kremlin language and called for a halt to “gift-giving to Ukraine.” It later issued a statement reaffirming its stance on U.S. assistance. “We must oppose Putin, but American taxpayers should not be shouldering the vast majority of the cost,” it said.

A September Pew Research poll found that most Republicans and Democrats say that the U.S. is providing “about right” or “not enough” support to Ukraine, though 32 percent of Republicans said the U.S. is providing “too much,” a figure that has more than tripled since March (9 percent). Relatedly, Americans’ concern about Ukraine being defeated and taken over by Russia dropped from 55 percent in May to 38 percent in September.

McCarthy’s comments to Punch Bowl News drew an incredulous response from Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who tweeted at McCarthy, “What in the absolute bloody hell is happening to @GOPLeader.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has warned that if the GOP wins the House, help for Ukraine would be in jeopardy.

“I just see a freight train coming, and that is Trump and his operation turning against aid for Ukraine,” he said on MSNBC. “House Republicans, if they were to take the majority, being preternaturally against anything Joe Biden is for — including the war in Ukraine — and there being a real crisis where the House Republican majority would refuse to support additional aid to Ukraine.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that she did not want to engage in hypotheticals about what could happen if Republicans gained control of the House, but she said the president would continue to support the Ukrainian people’s efforts to defend themselves.

“We will continue to work with Congress and continue to monitor those conversations on these efforts and support Ukraine as long as it takes,” she said. “We are going to keep that promise that we’re making to the brave Ukrainians who are fighting every day to fight for their freedom and their democracy.”

Jennifer Rubin writes, McCarthy is already revealing the havoc the GOP could wreak with a majority:

Republicans have already indicated what they would do if they control one or both houses of Congress after the midterm elections. And it’s terrifying.

Of most concern is the resistance from House Minority Leader [“Traitor”] Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) toward additional military aid to Ukraine. He told Punchbowl News during a recent interview, “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession, and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” he said. “They just won’t do it.” He added, “Then there’s the things [the Biden administration] is not doing domestically. Not doing the border and people begin to weigh that. Ukraine is important, but at the same time it can’t be the only thing they do and it can’t be a blank check.”

Such a proclamation must be encouraging for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, whose invasion strategy rests on the assumption that the will of Ukraine’s Western allies will weaken, allowing Russian forces to grind the neighboring nation into submission. President Biden has spent nearly a year showing that the West will not bend. Now, with McCarthy’s typical recklessness in indulging MAGA isolationists, he is offering hope to Putin that if the Russian leader sticks to his war plan — built on human rights atrocities and Iranian weaponry — he might prevail.

McCarthy’s comment will also likely shake European allies who worry about their own economic pain and fear that the United States might leave them dangling. It could also encourage Putin’s toadies in European capitals.

During the Cold War, buffoons who made similar Soviet-friendly comments earned the label “useful idiots.” It seems the Kremlin still counts on such people.

Like this pair of useful idiots on the pro-Putin FOX News fascist propaganda network. Russian TV Uses Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard to Sell Putin’s War.

UPDATE: “Komrade Kari” Lake has been endorsed by Putin apologist and propagandist Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi Gabbard Endorses Kari Lake For Governor Of Arizona.

This is only one item on the MAGA crowd’s agenda. While many GOP candidates are trying to downplay or change their extreme views, it is clear there is widespread support for impeaching Biden, as Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, recently reiterated. Others have proposed a nationwide abortion ban; repealing the Affordable Care Act and prescription drug cost-containment measures; and sunsetting entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Plus, if the Senate goes Republican, you can forget about the confirmation of judges and executive branch appointees. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) hasn’t hesitated to stymie past Democratic presidents. Even if he were inclined to be more reasonable (i.e., acknowledge an elected Democratic president should be able to govern), many in his party are willing to thwart virtually any of Biden’s appointments. And the Republican caucus would be even more crazed if Herschel Walker, J.D. Vance, Blake Masters and the rest of the Trump-backed loonies win their Senate races.

McCarthy is already refusing to “predetermine” what he might do in a face-off over the debt ceiling. And if he is willing to risk the full faith and credit of the United States in his battle to decimate the federal government, thereby plunging markets into chaos, then there is no question he’d be willing to shut down the government. (Republicans have already done this, in 2013 and 2018.)

Even if by some stroke of magic McCarthy were to be develop some common sense, the rest of his caucus would likely run right over him to paralyze the government. Biden and Senate Democrats might be able to prevent Republicans from repealing every scrap of legislation passed in the last two years, but they cannot force them to sustain aid to Ukraine or act in the interest of a functional government. Voters need to be clear-eyed about what is in store if even one chamber goes to Republican control.

Some voters, no doubt, understand that the GOP’s agenda is radical, but want to grant Republicans power as a check against Democrats and expect others in the party to restrain the crazies. Such magical thinking forgets the lessons of the 2016 election: Many voters cast ballots for the narcissistic and clearly unfit Donald Trump, confident that other Republicans would “restrain” him if elected. It didn’t work out.

Voters willing to vote for Republicans because “they won’t accomplish anything anyway!” should consider how deeply the GOP can harm the country, our allies and global democracy. Indeed, they are not even waiting to be elected before wreaking havoc.
https://t.co/euJJB6WOy0

— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) October 19, 2022

Voters who are willing to vote for Republicans because “they won’t accomplish anything anyway!” should consider how deeply the GOP can harm the country, our allies and global democracy. Indeed, they are not even waiting to be elected before wreaking havoc.

UPDATE: This QAnon Queen and pro-Putin White Christian Nationalist and January 6 insurrectionist is aready threatening Traitor Kevin McCarthy with being leader in name one with her in charge of the pro-Putin Caucus of the GQP.  Send this fascist prcess packing. Marjorie Taylor Greene Puts Kevin McCarthy On Notice With Stark ‘Power’ Warning:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who earlier this year spoke at a white nationalist event, said she expects to gain “a lot of power” if the midterm elections give Republicans control of the House.

During an interview with The New York Times, the lawmaker and conspiracy theorist appeared to put House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), on notice. He is likely to become House speaker if the GOP takes control after the midterms.

“I think that to be the best speaker of the House and to please the base, he’s going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway,” Greene was quoted as saying “in a flat, unemotional voice.”

Then, Greene issued what she insisted wasn’t a threat. [wink, wink]

“And if he doesn’t, they’re going to be very unhappy about it,” she said. “I think that’s the best way to read that. And that’s not in any way a threat at all. I just think that’s reality.”

DO NOT vote Republican and put this QAnon freak and Putin loving fascist princess in charge of the House GQP. God will not forgive you, nor will the generations of Americans who came before you.